Former British diplomat Craig Murray, a journalist and a photographer have been told they cannot attend Julian Assange’s wedding in Belmarsh Prison today.
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
Craig Murray, the former British ambassador and close friend of Julian Assange, as well as a photographer and a journalist have been barred from attending Assange’s wedding today at Belmarsh Prison, according to Assange’s fiancee Stella Moris.
I have the huge honour of being invited by Julian and Stella as one of the six people allowed to attend their wonderful wedding in Belmarsh prison today.
But Julian has now been told I will not be allowed in as my presence would "endanger the security of the prison"!!!#Assange
— Craig Murray – (@CraigMurrayOrg) March 23, 2022
Murray went on to tweet that:
“I plainly have superpowers, but this spite and viciousness even on their wedding day is absolutely typical of the cruel yet pathetic British authorities. But it most certainly will not spoil the day; we already knew what they are and nothing has changed. The defiant wedding of Julian and Stella today, in the face of a possible 175 years in a US jail for publishing the facts of US war crimes, is a triumph for love, a triumph for hope and a triumph for truth. Let us celebrate!!”
The British establishment seems to have a special hatred for Murray because he was once one of them, an ambassador who has turned into an Establishment critic. He blew the whistle on U.K.-condoned torture in Uzbekistan, where he represented Britain, accused the Scottish first minister of interfering in a trial against her predecessor and has staunchly supported Assange, an enemy of the state.
Assange’s wedding is taking place at 1 pm GMT, 9 am EDT. Initially the Ministry of Justice refused to allow the couple to be married in the prison. Assange and Morris had to sue the ministry, which finally relented.
Writing in The Guardian on Wednesday, Moris said:
“Behind the scenes we have been locked in a dispute with the Ministry of Justice and prison authorities, who have denied our proposed witnesses because they are journalists; and who have denied our proposed photographer because he also works as a press photographer, even though they would all attend in a private capacity.
The prison states that our wedding picture is a security risk because it could end up in social media or the press. How absurd. What kind of security threat could a wedding picture pose?
Belmarsh regularly permits photography. Tommy Robinson and other convicted prisoners were allowed to be interviewed on camera when ITV filmed inside Belmarsh prison. But for Julian, who isn’t even serving a sentence, there appear to be a different set of rules. What are they so afraid of?
I am convinced that they fear that people will see Julian as a human being. Not a name, but a person. Their fear reveals that they want Julian to remain invisible to the public at all costs, even on his wedding day, and especially on his wedding day. For him to disappear from public consciousness. …
The way he is being treated is cruel and inhuman, and the public doesn’t like it. So the authorities hide it from the public.
Julian is being turned into prisoner X, an abstraction that is neither seen nor heard, and therefore nonexistent. Julian is being disappeared because his imprisonment is a national disgrace, an embarrassment for the British state, and a vicious, authoritarian move.
The logic of disappearing a person in the hope that they will be forgotten is what Soviet Russia did. But it’s too late to hide what is being done to him.”
Arrival at Belmarsh prison for today's wedding ceremony: @StellaMoris1 and family. https://t.co/2VObAAQXgn
— Consortium News (@Consortiumnews) March 23, 2022
The birds are singing, the sun is shining & it’s beautiful for Stella & Julian #Assange today
So many around the world are sending love & solidarity to the family of the defining political prisoner of our lifetime.
Image by street artist AFK Insta@afk_artworks#AssangeWedding pic.twitter.com/jqtMWqa9zk
— Dr Deepa Govindarajan Driver (@deepa_driver) March 23, 2022
Congratulations to Stella Morris and Julian Assange. May God preserve you both.
I saw the Tommy Robinson interview on ITV (Jan 2020) with Ross Kemp who himself spent one night ‘in the can’ and coming out clearly shaken by the experience. Robinson was relaxed in his comfortable isolation while awaiting release. On the whole programme, he was the only one to show any sympathy for “him up there” ie Julian Assange in his total isolation.
Shut down RT and give extra to BBC World Service “to help its coverage of Ukraine”. That’s how the West controls the narrative and thereby the people. At least the Guardian did give Stella Moris a little space to let people know the truth.
The nasty behavior of British authorities cannot overwhelm the love that Julian and Stella have for each other and their two dear boys. May their love prevail!
Well Craig, no surprise in that sadism, but then you are a “security risk”!
Just look at what you did by showing the Baraitser justice to be so biased
against Julian’s mock trial; why you revealed the British court system
to outdo in deceit an Orwellian 1984, ministry, and for this service you’re
to be thanked endlessly.
Julian looks happy, Stella looks happy, and such a “greater love” keeps
truth flowing into real journalism.
I am aghast at the lies and endless nastiness of the US/UK empire. Yes, Julian is in England, but we are the ones calling the shots.
As Rome went away, so are the US/UK. We are living in our dark ages.
Unfortunately I fear the Julian Assange will soon become a martyr and not of his own choosing…
Security risks, WTF !!!
Belmarsh is the UKs Guantanamo Bay, a stain on the human race that will never be erased.
And, the UK Government and media, along with the USA, are the vanguard for the coming Fourth Reich.
On a more positive note. Best of wishes for Julian and Stella.
Britain is shrinking. As the former lapdog of America it is becoming less than a hairless chihuahua. Sad. Tragic. I’ve lived there when it was a great and noble country. Now there’s none of that left.
Anonymot:
Agreed. The British lion has shrunk. The UK’s treatment of Assange “is truly chinchillian.”
Oh what bittersweet emotions this wedding day conjures up, in me, of course, and I imagine in thousands of other supporters of the two of you around the globe. On the one side are the intense feelings of happiness and love, of deepest respect and admiration for both of you and for your extended families as well on this most auspicious day, on the other, equally intense emotions of anger, disgust, and ever more deeply ingrained bitterness at how the latest cabals of tinhorn tyrants on both sides of the Atlantic have usurped the legal powers needed to continue the thoroughly malicious and vindictive, indeed downright evil, persecution of Julian in the face of hundreds of well-argued protests from most of the primary civil liberties, free speech and press, and anti-political prisoner organizations, as well as from highly prominent individuals, all of whom have weighed in on Julian’s behalf against the most egregious and infamous abuse of state prosecutorial powers and the wholesale violation of the most basic principles of the rule of law in contemporary societies which, like the US and UK, forever proclaim themselves to be “free,” “democratic” and “open,” but which are in fact as unfree, anti-democratic and closed as any of the societies which, in their reckless hubris, they are so quick to denounce and demonize!
Still, on this day, let us allow no despairing thoughts. We will, I am sure, soon win Julian’s freedom at long last! Clearly the tide of public opinion is now turning, partly as a result of Nils Melzer’s fine book on Julian’s case, partly on the gathering strength of the pubic protests now taking place ever more frequently and in ever more places, and partly as a result of the doubling down of all of us who have long supported, and will continue to support Julian’s just cause until we get him freed. As the Anonymous folks say; “We will not forget! We will not forgive!” And most of all, WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP UNTIL WE FULLY SUCCEED!! I know I speak for thousands when I say you have our sacred pledges upon that!
So please try to have as happy a day as you possibly can under such outrageous circumstances! Keep in mind as well that “still waters run deep.” While it may often appear on the surface that no tangible progress is being made, every day, in a thousand various small ways, and in at least as many places, new waters are flowing in to support us. Sooner rather than later they will build up such a formidable force as to wash poor Belmarsh Prison clean off the face of the Earth!
With Congratulations and Love to You and Yours!
The viciousness of the Anglo-Saxons never died but this is a reminder of the atrocities of the Brits in India, S. Africa & during WW II using Phosphor BOMBS. British history & its old empire is evidence of it’s worldwide atrocities against HUMANITY!!
This petty and unnecessary cruelty is just one more crime against Julian Assange and his family. I want to congratulate Julian and Stella and promise that we out here around the world continue to support them and work for Julian’s release.
Will you Stella Morris love and protect this man, Julian Assange?
The crowd that could not be there shout:
SHE ALREADY HAS!
I wish all four of them (including the boys) every moment of happiness in the dark world in which we live.
US/UK = the asses of evil.
Brilliant!
Thank you Joe, this is a perfectly complete retelling of the atrocities of the Empire/s.
I weep at what the West has become.
I think the West has always been this way. It’s no longer hidden as its latter stage empire is on its last legs.